Truth and Friendship
by The Darkness Knight
Summary: Post Winter Soldier. Bucky Barns tries to remember who he was, now that the truth is out, can he accept it, and will Steve accept having his friend back after everything he's done? One shot. No slash, just bromance.


**Truth and Friendship**

_He tries to remember as best as he can, but is he the same person he was before, or is Bucky someone different now? _

He walked into the Smithsonian Museum, his eyes wandered to the Captain America exhibit, the signs and displays of World War II was a sight to be seen by all, but what caught his attention was the display of one soldier _James Buchanan Barnes _with the nickname _Bucky _written under it, the name sparked something in him, from the fight he had with Captain America days before.

"_People are going to die Buck…" _

"_Because I'm with you until the end of the line." _

He lowered his head, the brim of the baseball hat on his head covered the pain in his eyes, the conflict, ever since that fight he hadn't felt the same, he kept getting flashes, flashes of a life he didn't remember, a building with other children who didn't have parents, receiving papers with his name on them telling him that he was enlisted, but one caught his mind, a memory that he tried to clear up, every time he thought about it, it would get clearer and clearer.

* * *

_1910_

_Bucky walked along the playground outside the orphanage, watching the other children play, since he had been there for only five years, he still felt…out of place, like he wasn't supposed to be there, that there was something greater._

_Then he heard it, the sound of a body hitting the chain fence by the edge of the playground, Bucky looked up to three men beating on one boy, he chose to ignore it, until he heard the victim crying out._

"_Help please!" _

_He looked around, there were none of the supervisors, no one to stop them, he decided to do something about it, he stood up and walked over to them "Hey, why don't you go," he pulled the leader away "and pick on someone else."_

"_Oh, so now skinny boy has a friend huh?"_

"_No, but you don't want to make an enemy of me." He drew an arm back and slammed it into his face_

_The leader drew his hands to his face and felt the blood gush from his broken nose as the other two ganged up on Bucky, but he held his ground, growing up on the streets he knew how to defend himself, he let his movements guide him as he shoved the right bully then punched the left in the stomach, then in the face, watching a few teeth fly out and he fell to the ground as he turned to the right and kicked him, then got on top of him and slammed his fist into the bully's face, and he kept punching over and over, blood and bruises formed on his face._

"_Stop. Please." The weak boy held Bucky's arm back and he nodded, rising up and watching the bully's flee "Thank you."_

"_Think nothing of it, you should learn to defend yourself." Bucky looked at him "What's your name?"_

"_Steve Rogers." _

"_James Barns, everyone calls me Bucky." _

* * *

"Hard to believe Captain America is alive huh?"

Bucky looked over to an elderly man standing beside him, the man was in his eighties, hunch in his back, moved in a wheel chair, Bucky wasn't even realizing he was sitting down.

"Was he really was a hero?" Bucky asked

"Oh yeah, I met him once, decades ago during the war." He smiled "I'm not surprised if I'm one of the last still alive who still remembers when Captain America was a poster boy for war bonds."

Bucky nodded as he let his eyes wander around and focused on the monument to himself.

"You know, you look like him. Bucky Barns, are you related to him?"

Bucky shook his head "I…I don't know."

"You seem lost."

Bucky leaned back, flexing his mechanical arm "I guess you can say I'm having a bit of an identity crisis."

"Everyone has one of those eventually, it's a natural part of finding out who you are. Your young, you have a long time to go before you get to my age, if you want to change who you are, don't change who your friends are."

Bucky nodded remembering Steve's words to him "_I'm with you until the end of the line." _

* * *

"The human centipede project was shut down a few months ago." Sam Wilson told him "Someone matching Phil Colson's description was seen with a team of SHIELD agents."

"That's impossible, Colson died at Loki's hands." Steve looked down at the map on the table "We still have half of these bases to hit…but where…"

"If you want to know about HYDRA's operations, I can help."

Steve and Sam turned to Bucky standing in the doorway of Steve's apartment, Sam immediately drew his gun along with Natasha in the background who drew hers.

"Easy guys, easy!" Steve told them as he looked at Bucky "How can you help?"

"I know enough about them to know what it takes to finding their location, give me a map and I can."

Steve nodded and motioned to Sam, who folded up the map and handed it to Bucky, who stepped into the backroom.

"You trust him?"

"He's my friend, of course I trust him."

* * *

Bucky came out a few hours later to Steve messing with an old radio, Sam Wilson and Natasha Romanoff were gone.

"Where are they?"

"Gone to get some sleep." Steve stopped with the radio and looked at Bucky "Why are you here Buck?"

"That name…why do I have it?" Bucky asked

"You hated your name, you said it reminded you of the pain you felt as a child because you thought of your parents." Steve told him as Bucky sat down "So you decided to have everyone call you Bucky."

"I…I saved you right? You were being beaten up at the orphanage where we grew up."

He nodded "Yeah, now a days, I think I can handle them."

They both smiled and chuckled, Steve saw part of the old Bucky in this new assassin.

"I can't guarantee I will ever be your friend the soldier…but I promise I will do whatever I can to be who I was."

"All I care about Bucky is that I have my friend back." Steve replied "Because I'm with you until the end of the line."


End file.
